Nina woke up the next morning after a very fitful night of tossing and turning; she hadn’t been able to stop coughing and her throat felt as if it was full of razors. She’d taken another dose of paracetamol and ibuprofen at about 4 a.m. and had tossed and turned for hours. Eventually, she’d propped up four pillows and had wedged herself upright to try to alleviate the coughing. It hadn’t really worked that well. She’d eventually dropped off to sleep and was now awake with a pounding head and in the shower.
Rather than feeling better, as she and Robby had discussed that she might be after an early night, she felt a million times worse. Her head felt like a brick, her throat was tight and constricted, and she was coughing every few minutes. She let the hot water in the shower run down the outside of her neck, hoping that the warmth might alleviate the symptoms of her throat somewhat. Nothing seemed to work as she coughed her way through the shower and rolled her head to try and ease the pain.
After getting out of the shower and drying herself off, she rooted through her toiletries bag and found the tub of Vicks she’d put in at the last minute as an afterthought. After liberallyrubbing it all over her neck, its strong smell hit her nostrils, and she hoped it would do something to help. Without much appetite and unable to face going down to breakfast, she called down to order a croissant and pastries. When her breakfast arrived, she just picked at it with a cup of tea and wished she hadn’t bothered.
Feeling absolutely terrible, like she had been hit by a bus, she attempted to soldier on. She shuffled down to the pool, settled in, and realised as she sat there coughing away to herself that she was going downhill and fast. After ordering some morning tea, of which she didn’t have much at all, she decided there was nothing for it but to go to her room and go back to bed.
After another dose of pain relief and another layer of Vicks, she undressed, coughing almost constantly, pulled back the covers and got into the huge king-sized bed. Her head throbbed with pain, making it hard to open her eyes or even lift her head from the pillow. Every time she moved, a pain shot through her body as if every muscle and joint was protesting. Putting the back of her hand to her forehead, she realised that her skin was clammy and hot to the touch. Then, just like that, she was suddenly icy cold, with shivers running up and down her spine. Her throat was so sore that swallowing felt like gulping down shards of glass, and as she attempted to get comfortable, the coughing was getting out of control.
As she rested, she felt worse and worse by the minute, and it felt as if her throat had tightened to a tiny gap. Breathing was a struggle; her nose was completely blocked, forcing her to breathe through her mouth, which only made her throat feel worse. Her whole body ached as she heaved herself over and reached over to sip some water. She grimaced as she tried to swallow and tasted the horrid tang of illness in her mouth.
Nina’s ears were clogged, too, making everything sound muffled and distant. The constant coughing was exhausting,leaving her chest aching and her breaths shallow. Each cough felt like it was ripping her throat apart, and the sound echoed in her head, amplifying her misery.
Not able to get comfortable, Nina decided to try to distract herself. Attempting to read her book for a bit, she quickly dropped it and wondered if she was imagining that the sheets seemed to hurt against her skin. Even the breeze from the fan seemed too harsh, making her shiver. As she shifted in the bed, time seemed to crawl as she rallied through fits of coughing and struggling to get herself comfortable.
A few hours later, Nina realised she must have eventually dropped off as she woke up with a pounding head and searing throat. She shook her head as she sipped from the glass of water on the nightstand. Whatever she’d picked up had taken over her at lightning speed. She’d gone downhill so fast she couldn’t quite believe it was only the night before when she’d started to really feel unwell. She stared around the room with an overwhelming desire to feel well again, at the same time as not really being able to move. At least she was in a nice hotel room, there was that, she supposed.
As the afternoon wore on, rather than feeling any better, Nina felt progressively worse. She realised that she was counting down the minutes between pain relief, and around the three-hour mark, she wasn’t quite sure what to do with herself. She was propped up with hotel pillows and wore the white dressing gown but could barely move. The worst thing, as far as she was concerned, apart from the pounding in her head and sore throat, was the feeling that her throat was closing up. Part of her was wondering if she was being a drama queen, while the other part was seriously concerned. Another part of her felt delirious. Things in Bangkok were not good.
She’d sent a couple of messages to Robby, telling him that she still wasn’t feeling great, but overall, she hadn’t wanted toworry him too much and had left it at that. However, as the day wore on, she wasn’t getting any better; the coughing was so persistent that it had made her sides hurt, and she had hardly managed to force herself to eat anything at all. Deciding that she needed to at least try to get something inside her and that maybe that was part of the problem, she attempted to get up. However, the effort of doing that alone left her feeling dizzy and exhausted and she almost gave up.
Just about managing to make herself a cup of tea and taking one of the hotel biscuits, she slumped in the chair, coughing the whole time. Taking tiny sips, she forced herself to drink half the cup of tea and managed to have a few mouthfuls of the biscuit.
Then, after another long stint of sleep, Nina woke up again and realised that she wasn’t feeling any better. She had a short phone call with Robby, trying to speak to him in between coughs. He sounded really concerned.
‘You sound absolutely terrible,’ he said.
‘I feel absolutely terrible,’ Nina replied.
‘What have you taken?’
‘I’ve been taking double doses every four hours or so, but I haven’t had too many,’ Nina collapsed into a coughing fit as she spoke.
‘So the pain relief isn’t helping at all? It’s not making you feel any different?’
‘Not at all,’ Nina said. ‘It’s not working. Sorry, no, it must be. It seems as if it isn’t until it wears off, and then I realise that it must have been.’ Nina swore. ‘I’ve never felt like this. I feel awful. Really, really bad.’
‘Where have you got pain?’ Robby asked.
The pain was everywhere. Nina tried to play it down somewhat, seeing as Robby was a flight away and couldn’t do anything to help her. She obviously had a bad case of the flu and just had to get through it. She explained that it wasn’tparticularly the coughing or the pounding in her head, which was just like any other kind of cold she’d ever had. It was more that she felt as if her throat had closed up so much that she was finding it difficult to breathe. She mentioned it but tried not to make too much of a fuss.
Robby sounded more concerned by the minute. ‘Do you think it could be Covid?’
‘I don’t know, I haven’t left the room to get a test or anything. Is Covid even a thing now?’
‘I think so. Not sure.’
‘What would be the point of me doing a test anyway? It doesn’t mean much.’
‘True, good point. It’s still around, though.’
‘If it’s Covid, it’s Covid, right? There's not a whole lot I can do about it,’ Nina said as another bout of coughing hit her.
‘Yes, I suppose you’re right. I just hate the fact that you’re there on your own and I can’t do anything to help. I’ll change my flight right away.’
‘No, no. I’ll just ride it out.’
‘I can leave right now if you want me to.’
